Abstract
This paper analyzes the tonal pattern of alphabetic acronyms and alphabetic compounds in Nagasaki Japanese, which has two contrastive tonal types. I argue that the tonal pattern of alphabetic acronyms can be accounted for by applying loanword tone rules to them. In contrast, the tonal pattern of alphabetic compounds cannot be fully accounted for by the loanword tonal rules, because the tonal distribution of alphabetic compounds varies depending on the second member of the compound. I propose an analysis according to which the second morpheme of an alphabetic compound can determine the tonal pattern of the compound. I further support the analysis with an account of tonal patterns in short compounds.
